Working together as a team, they explored around the rocks to find a good spot to build, thought out a plan, collected supplies and began to construct a structure which would protect them from the rain which had begun to fall, lightly.

"It's a cave," said Quinn, "A really deep cave."

"There was a lot of ants in there," said Ethan. Alec said they decided to call it the "Ant Cave" or the "Ant Fort" and the kids spent more than an hour without adults around telling them what to do.

While they may not have known it, the 8- and 9-year-olds are part of a statewide effort that began in 2007 to get kids outside, in their own back yard.

The New Hampshire Children in Nature Coalition includes educators, environmental groups, recreation programs, and those in health, business and the arts, all working to ensure that the next generation has a deeper connection to the land.

In 2006, a national conversation was ignited by Richard Louv’s groundbreaking book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder."

Marilyn Wyzga, conveyor of the coalition and wildlife educator at New Hampshire Fish and Game, said when the book came out, it validated what was being seen by her and others in New Hampshire, that kids were staying inside, not just because there were computers and televisions there, but also because ticks and mosquitoes carried disease and there were fears about what was outside being expressed by adults. And they were too busy with structured lessons and sports.

In the book, Louv traces the causes and impacts of children’s disconnect from nature and included a dire warning for neighborhoods, whole communities and the very future of our society, that by turning our back to the outdoors, we would become a less healthy and happy population.

Photos: Kids of NH Children in Nature Coalition escape outside

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These children are part of a statewide effort that began in 2007 to get kids outside and in their own back yard, thanks to the New Hampshire Children in Nature Coalition.

Louv wrote, “Healing the broken bond between our young and nature is in everyone's self-interest, not only because aesthetics or justice demand it, but also because our mental, physical and spiritual health depend upon it.”

Wyzga said the social, physical, cognitive, and psychological benefits of spending time in nature are now being recognized and addressed.

In addition to working with schools, the coalition is working with a number of conservation organizations and town recreation departments who are hosting day camps this summer with a focus on outdoor experiences like this fort-building day for children.

The Harris Center for Conservation in Hancock is one organization which has embraced the concept.

The event took place at this magnificent old farm with a view of North Pac Monadnock, Monday, where the 11 kids from Mrs. Katie Richardson's third-grade class at Hancock Elementary School came for the afternoon, Monday. I tagged along, being an old fort-builder from the 1970s.

Studies show that as of 1990, the radius around the home where children were allowed to roam on their own had shrunk to one-ninth of what it had been in 1970.The kids left school where they missed recess, and afternoon reading and writing sessions for a few hours, to build forts. When they got there, the children were greeted by a pair of broadwing hawks who screeched at them from a perch high in a pine tree. They gathered around a small cement round pond at the Harris Center and tried to capture frogs before skipping through the meadows with a mowed strip of path, to the woods, where they broke into groups of their own choosing to create forts.

Future architects, builders, landscapers and interior home builders were free to create a space and the adults just hung back.

"I like to go in here because it is really fun," said Jocelyn Coty, a third-grader.

Although it was dark between two rocks, Jocelyn said, "There is a little light where the roof is," a skylight of sorts to give some natural light. She was not afraid, she said.

Gretchen Shippee, a nurse at the school and mother of Madeline, one of the fort builders, said her kids have been able to benefit from the Harris Center's summer preschool program and their father's love of the outdoors.

"It's very enriching," she said of outdoor programming. "They are very much in their comfort zone out here."

In New Hampshire, where more than 32 percent of children aged 6-12 are overweight or obese, according to the Foundation for Healthy Communities, and more than 9 percent of those aged 4-17 have at some point been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control, we need more programs like this.

Other regional conservation groups offer kids programs this summer to get them outside and many are very reasonably priced. Prescott Farm in Laconia and the Squam Lakes Science Center in Holderness are two. They offer camps similar to those offered at the Harris Center this summer.

Included in this statewide effort to get kids outside are the NH Parks and Recreation Association, NH DRED/Division of Parks, NH Fish and Game, NH Department of Environmental Services, University of New Hampshire, Plymouth State University, the Student Conservation Association, UNH Cooperative Extension, and the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Dozens of volunteers are actively involved with the NH Children in Nature Coalition at many levels and there are many volunteer opportunities around the state.